Remembering Verna Mae Slone

Friends and family remembered 94-year-old Verna Mae Slone in Knott County. Slone was a famous quilt maker and wrote several books about appalachian life. She was known to most and "The Moses of the Mountains" or simply Granny Mae.

Verna Mae Slone's family looked at her funeral as a going away party.

Her son Orbin Slone says, "We'll miss her, you know, but she left so much, so many memories. And you can see mom in all the homes here, in each one of our homes."

Slone's hand made quilts and dolls lined the walls. Family members say these items as well as her many books showed her pride in eastern Kentucky. Her granddaughter says Slone did not like the way some people thought about appalachian living.

"It upset her to the point that she wrote the books to try to explain to people just how we are. That we weren't backward dumb hillbillies, that we're not dumb, but that if we are, so what?" says Sherri Slone, her granddaughter.

"She said god sent his bravest strongest, sturdiest, people into the mountains to live. She said if they hadn't been they would have left or died or gone crazy," says Orbin Slone.

Sherri Slone says her grandmother was always looking to share her mountain stories with someone new. "Before she got ready to tell you one, she would say, 'Well I know you've hear this before'. I said, 'Yeah, about a million times, but I want to hear it again'."

Sherry Slone says her granny now has a whole new audience for her stories.

Sherri Slone has decorated her home with many of her grandmother's keepsakes. She says she wants to keep Granny Mae's memory alive for future generations.

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